A curry compound could help to keep diabetes at bay among people most at risk, a small new study shows.

The research, published in the journal Diabetes Care, found that people with prediabetes who took capsules containing curcumin — a compound found in the curry spice turmeric — were less likely to go on to develop Type 2 diabetes, compared with people who didn’t take the curcumin capsules, Reuters reported.

“This study demonstrated that the curcumin intervention in a prediabetes population may be beneficial,” Thai researchers wrote in the study.

The study included 240 people who all had prediabetes. They were assigned to take either the curcumin capsules or a placebo for nine months. The researchers followed up with them after three, six and nine months.

At the end of the nine-month period, 16.4 percent of people who took the placebo developed Type 2 diabetes. However, no one in the group that took curcumin developed diabetes.

This is certainly not the first time curcumin has been singled out for its health benefits. In 2008, a study published in the journal Endocrinology showed that mice were less likely to develop Type 2 diabetes if they were given turmeric.